The Ovals series is an ongoing body of work by Seylan Kandak centered on the oval form as a space of tension between interior and exterior, protection and vulnerability. Initiated with Childhood Memories: In Search of the White Fgg (2004) developed during her studies in Paris the series constitutes the central axis of her artistic research.
The oval is approached not as a fixed form, but as a continuous and open structure in movement. Evoking the cocoon, the shell, the seed, or the microcosmos, these organic forms suggest transitional states situated between concealment and revelation, intimacy and expansion. Their repetition and variation generate a visual rhythm shaped by movement, circulation, and continuous flux.
The paintings are developed through accumulations of gestures, layers, drips, transparencies, and repeated linear movements. Flowing marks and suspended forms create tensions between gravity and lightness, containment and expansion. The surfaces preserve traces of time, gesture, and material transformation, functioning as sensitive spaces where appearance and disappearance coexist.
Rather than representing stable objects, the works propose perceptual and emotional experiences. The frontal intensity of the forms, combined with their ambiguity and permeability, creates an almost physical encounter in which what is revealed and what remains hidden coexist simultaneously. Through these paintings, Seylan Kandak explores how form can become a space of memory, introspection, and transformation.
